A frantic five-second search for a Taleban grenade in a flooded ditch won a
British soldier one of the country’s highest awards for gallantry yesterday.

Serjeant Deacon Cutterham, of The Rifles, was awarded the Conspicuous
Gallantry Medal for the actions that saved his life and the lives of the men
around him on May 24 last year.

“It all happened so fast, but so slowly, if you know what I mean,” he said. “I
heard the ‘ching’ of the fly-off lever coming off it.” The grenade, which
had been thrown over a wall, fell two or three metres in front